Leah St. John’s sixth-inning homer punctuated a dominant Mascenic victory in Wilton Monday afternoon, as the Vikings snapped a two-game losing streak at the Warriors’ expense. 

“Coming back from two losses made us hungry to want to destroy them, really beat them,” St. John said after the 19-6 victory. “We know our potential, and this late in the season, we want to show that.”

The Vikings (6-4) lost back-to-back close games to Newmarket and Portsmouth Christian last week. They buckled down in practice, St. John said, and came out Monday afternoon ready to rumble. The Warriors (5-4), on the other hand, came out “flat-footed” against the visiting Vikings, coach Scott Dowling said. 

“It’s kind of a tale of two teams right now,” Dowling said. “When we show up focused and ready to play, I don’t know who can stop us. But on the other side, when we show up flat-footed, we can stop ourselves, and we had a little bit of that today.”

WLC made run-scoring errors in the first and second to give the Vikings an early lead before Mascenic blew things open in the fifth, scoring six times to take a 12-3 lead.

“We had some plays that kind of exposed where our heads were at today, but nothing that’s not fixable,” Dowling said. 

Dowling rallied his girls between half-innings, and Wilton came out with renewed fire, scoring three times on a trio of Viking errors and a pair of singles from Ryleigh Smith (1-3, walk, run) and Ella Morris (2-3 with a triple). 

But the top of the sixth spelled the end for WLC, as the Vikings batted around and scored seven times to create the run-rule gap at 19-6. St. John smashed a two-run dinger to left to get things going; by the time she came up again with the bases loaded, Dowling considered intentionally walking her and breathed a sigh of relief when she was merely hit by a pitch to drive in only one run. 

“Mascenic’s a good team, there’s no doubt about that,” Dowling said. “Leah St. John’s a great player.”

Mascenic starter Katalina Davis (six innings, 13 strikeouts, six hits) was excellent on the mound, striking out the side in the third and sixth as WLC did most of their damage on fielding errors behind her.

“She’s been throwing great all season,” St. John said. “We couldn’t ask for anything more from Kat.”

The Vikings also got good hitting performances from catcher Ella Pearson (3-4, three runs) and outfielder Delaney Traffie (2-3, walk, two runs). WLC also saw hits from their outstanding freshman catcher Haidyn Paquette (3-4, two doubles), first baseman Kelsey Crouse (1-2, two walks and a run) and Savannah Dubois (1-2, double and a walk), and were bolstered by the return of Abby Dowling, who went 1-2 in her first game back from injury, playing left field and third base. 

“We hung through, we pushed through, we’re in good spirits still,” Dowling said. “I really think this is going to be a lot of fun to watch the second half of this season as they start to figure it out and put it together and motivate themselves.”

WLC is now ninth in Division IV and hosts undefeated Portsmouth Christian (9-0) Thursday. 

Mascenic is seventh in DIV and primed to go on a hot streak, as they close the season with six games against Hinsdale, Sunapee, Farmington and Epping, who are currently a combined 7-19.

“Next couple games, we really want to dig in and hit early,” St. John said. “That’s been our issue a little bit. A couple errors in the field is what got them a leg up on us in the beginning today, but I think if we hit earlier, we’ll be all right.”

The Vikings were scheduled to play at Hinsdale Wednesday after press time and host Sunapee Friday. 

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